Technical Abstract:
A major goal of utilization research in recent years has been to incorporate renewable resources, such as those derived from corn and soybeans, into wood adhesives, particularly plywood glues. These renewable resources include methyl glucosides (MeG) from cornstarch and various carbohydrate and proteinaceous products from soybeans. The approaches used to incorporate these materials into phenolic plywood glues will be described. Research involving MeG has led to replacement of up to 50% of the phenolic resin in plywood glues at formaldehyde/phenol ratios (4.2) twice the normal ratio (about 2.1), with addition of MeG to glue mixes having been commercialized at multi-million lbs./year rates. Further data on the use of soy oligosaccharides in plywood adhesives will be discussed, and the most recent work on attempts to use soy proteins in extruded foam plywood glues will be presented, along with a description of the problems to be overcome in commercializing these materials.